I find the traditional way of playing against the KID, where white castles kingside developing the white bishop naturally can be difficult if you don't know the theory. The strategy, in a nutshell, is white advances pawns on the Queenside and black advances pawns on the kingside, opening up lines for major pieces. IMO, it is much harder to play the white side in this opening, blacks strategy makes a lot of his moves quite natural, when playing blitz this can often give black a big time advantage.
I have started playing my white bishop to g2, matching blacks pawn structure. Yo could try something like this...
1.d4 ..Nf6 2.c4 ..g6 3.g3 ..Bg7 4.Bg2 ..0-0 5.0-0 ..d6 6.Nc3 etc...
The advantage of this is that you get a 'normal' game. Blacks strategy of advancing pawns on the kingside is still possible, but whites g3 pawn covers f4 (which black would normally try to install a pawn, or a knight in the main line). This significantly limits blacks options a requires a change in strategy which a lot of KID players are unfamiliar with.
Here is a very recent game played in this line, as you can see, black really never gets going (and black is Hikaru Nakamura no less! A KID speicialist)
If you want to see some analysis of this game, you can find it here...
http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=8514
[Event "FIDE Grand Prix London"]
[Site "London ENG"]
[Date "2012.09.28"]
[EventDate "2012.09.21"]
[Round "7"]
[Result "1-0"]
[White "Shakhriyar Mamedyarov"]
[Black "Hikaru Nakamura"]
[ECO "E67"]
[WhiteElo "2729"]
[BlackElo "2783"]
[PlyCount "85"]
1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 g6 3. Nf3 Bg7 4. g3 O-O 5. Bg2 d6 6. O-O Nbd7
7. Nc3 { both sides are castled, white has control of the centre. The normal rules apply, black must challenge by playing ..e5 or ..c5. } e5 8. e4 exd4 9. Nxd4 Re8 10. h3 Nc5 11. Re1 { Now if you look at the position, blacks white bishop is a problem, where should it be developed? It's natural diagonal is covered, the only safe square is d7, but ideally black would like to keep that free for his c5 knight. In the traditional KID, black might try moving his f6 knight there, to allow f5. This is actually quite a major thorn in the side of blacks position. Developing the bishop to b7 is possible, but it takes two moves and is dangerous, as whites bishop is already developed along the h1-a8 diagonal. White can use this to create tactical threats.. } h6 12. Kh2
Bd7 13. Rb1 a6 14. a3 Qc8 15. f4 Rb8 16. b4 Ne6 17. Nf3 { As you can see, black developed the bishop to d7, which allowed white to challenge the knight on c5. White retreats his knight to f3 because he wants to avoid exchanges. He has a massive space advantage, but it has come at the cost of a number of weaknesses ( the pawns are advanced all over the board, if minor pieces are exchanged then black will start to create unprotected squares in the white position where his pieces can head to). By avoiding this exchange, white gives the move back to black and basically asks the question "how are you going to proceed?" } c5
18. e5 { Black was forced into creating weaknesses, he had to do something to create some space and get some play. Whites e5! is a brilliant move! Now his knights have squares to head to in the centre. d5 and e5 both fall into white control. A textbook example of how to convert a space advantage into a positional advantage. } dxe5 19. Nxe5 cxb4 20. axb4 Nf8 21. Bb2 Be6 22. Nd5 { exchanging this knight gives white a passed pawn in the centre. As can be seen in the game, this is just as dangerous as leaving the knight on the board } Qd8
23. Qb3 h5 24. Rbd1 Bxd5 25. cxd5 h4 26. d6 hxg3+ 27. Qxg3 Nh5
28. Qg4 f5 29. Qf3 Qh4 30. d7 Red8 31. Rf1 Kh7 32. Qe3 Qe7
33. Qc5 Qxc5 34. bxc5 Ne6 35. Ba3 Nhxf4 36. Nf7 Rf8 37. Rxf4 { Black can't recapture because of d8Q }
Rxf7 38. Rh4+ Kg8 39. Bd5 Nd8 40. Re1 Bf6 41. Re8+ Kg7
42. Rhh8 Be5+ 43. Rxe5 { So what do you think? I look at this game and think, well, white dictated the game. Far too often i find black dictates in the traditional KID. A lot of whites moves were quite natural and easy to find in this game. I'm amazed this isn't the main line. The commentator in the link i posted above calls the g3 line of the KID a 'quiet side line'. I can only assume he means the opening is quiet, the middle game is anything but! Very playable opening, and doesn't come at the expense that a lot of gambits and cheap shots lumber you with... }
I would advise you give this a try as it gives you a natural game where you develop your pieces and castle. White retains the advantage of the first move into the middle game quite easily.
29 Sep '12 20:301 edit
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